Democracy gone Astray: Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.

This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

The General's Son: Miko Peled tours Canada with call for one-state solution in Israel-Palestine

Sometimes you find yourself chatting with someone where there is disagreement. And so your strongly held beliefs get challenged -- which is not always a bad thing.

That is what happened to me recently with my telephone conversation with Israeli-American Miko Peled, author of The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine, now on a cross-Canada tour sponsored by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East.

As a Jew who hesitates to define himself in the debates about the Middle East, it is my feeling that a two state solution for Israelis and Palestinians seems preferable since it appears to be the most doable and realistic, even the under the current difficult political situation.

Dr. Gregory Asner didn't need hyper-spectral imaging to tell him something was very wrong with Earth's mightiest rain forest.

In fact, none of the super-sensory techno-gadgetry aboard his research plane -- dubbed the Carnegie Airborne Observatory -- would tell a more horrifying tale than a basic pair of wing-mounted cameras.

Frank and Philip Gilardi live in Ohio and own produce packing and delivery companies that employ about 400 people. The brothers are also devout Catholics who donate food to religious charities, provide a trailer for the local parish picnic every year, put pro-life bumper stickers on all company trucks—and don't want their companies' insurance plans to cover contraception, as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires. They've sued the Obama administration, arguing that the mandate violates their constitutionally protected religious freedoms.

How? By citing the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, which suggested that corporations have the same First Amendment rights as human beings to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. The Gilardis' lawyers—and a host of similar lawsuits—are arguing that if the courts have found that corporations have free-speech rights, they ought to also find that businesses have the right to free expression of religion.

With all eyes on congressional Republicans' doomed effort to repeal Obamacare, it's easy to forget that efforts to stymie the law's key provisions are continuing apace at the state level. Specifically, 22 states have decided not to go along with the Affordable Care Act's provisions for expanding Medicaid coverage to their poorest residents.

Medicaid expansion will kick in January 1. So far, its uneven rollout is disproportionately affecting minorities, a higher percentage of whom qualify for the federally funded coverage. As the authors of a recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation explain, "People of color make up the majority of uninsured individuals with incomes below the Medicaid expansion limit in both states moving forward and not moving forward with the expansion at this time." (The 2012 Supreme Court decision that spared Obamacare turned Medicare expansion into a state-by-state decision.)

How Republicans Blocked a Key Obamacare Benefit—Without the Shutdown

The Government Leakers Who Truly Endanger America Will Never Face Prosecution

Secrecy is for the convenience of the state. To support military adventures and budgets, vast troves of U.S. government secrets are routinely released not by lone dissident whistle-blowers but rather skilled teams of government officials. They engage in coordinated propaganda campaigns designed to influence public opinion. They leak secrets compulsively to advance careers or justify wars and weapons programs, even when the material is far more threatening to national security than any revealed by Edward Snowden.

Remember the hoary accounts in the first week of August trumpeting a great intelligence coup warranting the closing of nearly two dozen U.S. embassies in anticipation of an al-Qaida attack? Advocates for the surveillance state jumped all over that one to support claims that NSA electronic interceptions revealed by Snowden were necessary, and that his whistle-blowing had weakened the nation's security. Actually, the opposite is true.

The government is hours away from its first shutdown since 1996. Here's why it would be awful:

1. HUGE NUMBER OF FURLOUGHS: As many as 800,000 of the country's 2.1 million federal workers could be furloughed as the result of a shutdown.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ON HOLD: The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says that the regulator would "effectively shut down" without a deal to fund the government. The EPA wouldn't be able to pay its employees and most of its regulatory functions would be put on hold until a deal is reached.

Recent college students are defaulting on federal loans at the highest rate in nearly two decades, reflecting "crisis" levels of student debt and a lackluster economy that leaves graduates with bleak employment prospects.

One in 10 recent borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans within the first two years, the highest default rate since 1995, according to annual figures made public Monday by the Department of Education.

The U.S. markets had been closed for several hours when Congress, at midnight, let the government shut down, but, even so, they already reflected how things were going in Washington. Stocks were down, continuing a slow-motion slide that’s seen the S. & P. 500 drop on eight of the past nine days. It’s hardly been a momentous decline so far—the S. & P. has fallen about two and a half per cent from its all-time high, and is still up for the month—but it seems clear that markets are getting a little queasy about the shutdown.

However “friendly” the officers may have appeared, the Ontario Provincial Police was way out of line when its cops visited citizens who planned to speak at hearings on the proposed nuclear waste dump near Lake Huron.

Without hard evidence of imminent danger from a protest, the provincial police should not be doing anything that might put in question Ontarians’ democratic right to express their opinion on nuclear waste – at a public forum no less. Indeed, it’s fair to say that Ontario Power Generation’s plan to bury low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste in a deep underground facility near Kincardine deserves serious scrutiny.

An 89-year-old Toronto woman is willing to go to jail over Statistics Canada’s choice of number crunchers.

It’s not that Audrey Tobias detests numbers or math nerds. Rather, she hates the company that is processing the census data for the government agency: Lockheed Martin.

On Thursday, she will take the stand to explain to a judge why she refused to fill out the form.

Over 200 people joined in a rally held at City Hall today calling for a rejection of the proposed Energy East pipeline. Over 60 people were involved earlier in a 12 kilometre walk and paddle along the Rideau River from Vincent Massey Park to City Hall. The event was organized to send a strong message of concern and opposition by residents of Ottawa.

"We're very much concerned about the local impacts, which could poison our waterways with a spill, including the Rideau River. But we're also opposed to this pipeline because it facilitates the reckless expansion of Alberta's Tar Sands, when we must instead do everything possible to stop climate change. This is really an Energy Waste pipeline," stated Ben Powless, Community Organizer for Ecology Ottawa.

Conservatives failing veterans, critics say

OTTAWA - The Conservative government, which long claimed its support of Canada's military as a point of pride, faced mounting political pressure Monday to close lingering gaps in its long-championed veterans legislation.

A leaked copy of a veterans ombudsman's report — slated for release Tuesday but obtained over the weekend by The Canadian Press — confirms there are major problems with a system that was meant to care for and compensate former soldiers for injuries they sustained overseas, the New Democrats say.

Members of Parliament spent a combined $123.6 million in overall expenses for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2013, up $2.3 million over the previous year, according to a yearly Commons report published on Monday.

MPs spent more than $67 million in employees salaries and service contracts, $25 million in travel expenses, and $15 million in office expenses including cellphones and postage.

OTTAWA — An independent commission that redrew the electoral map in Ontario is suggesting two MPs, including the NDP’s ethics critic, may have manipulated a handful of communities into reversing their positions on the redrawn map.

The allegations are contained in the final report from the Ontario electoral boundary commission that rejected multiple recommendations from Conservative MPs — including House leader Peter Van Loan and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver — for changes to riding borders, and rebuked comments from two Liberal MPs that the commission was corrupted in its decisions.

WASHINGTON -- When the drama surrounding a government shutdown abates, the House of Representatives expects to take up legislation to expand taxpayer support for derivatives, the complex financial products at the heart of the 2008 meltdown. And while traditionally straightforward tasks like funding the federal government have become raucously contentious in recent weeks, a bill subsidizing Wall Street banks is likely to garner significant bipartisan support.

Also on the post-shutdown agenda is legislation that would prevent the Department of Labor and the SEC from implementing new consumer protection standards for 401(k) accounts and other retirement funds.

Update: The midnight deadline came and went without a deal from House Republicans and Senate Democrats (except for one small bill, on military pay). Welcome to the Shutdown.

The government will shut down at midnight unless President Obama and Congress can agree on a temporary resolution to continue funding federal agencies. (Spoiler: They probably won't.)

There's a new front in the battle over Obamacare: Republican congressional staffers are angry at their bosses for trying to deprive them of affordable insurance.

Like many Americans, most Congressional staffers receive health insurance through their employer, the federal government. And like most employers, the government covers a big portion of the cost: 75 percent. The Affordable Care Act changed this, requiring members of Congress and their staff to obtain coverage via the the health insurance exchanges created by the law. But the language in the law was unclear as to whether lawmakers and their aides would be able to keep using government money to purchase heath insurance. To clear this up, the Obama administration issued a proposed rule in August stating that the government would continue to cover 75 percent of congressional health benefits. The GOP latched onto this new regulation as an "outrageous exemption for Congress" and a "big fat taxpayer funded subsidy." Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), introduced bills that would strip out those employer contributions.

Shortly after 2 pm today the Senate stripped several of the House GOP’s amendments from a short-term funding bill and sent the legislation back, making it all but certain that a partial government shutdown will occur at midnight.

The economic impact of a shutdown depends on how long it lasts, but workers and the poor are likely to be hit the hardest. About 800,000 of 2.1 million federal employees will be furloughed, with no guarantee of retroactive pay. “Essential” employees like active-duty service members, scientists posted to the International Space Station, mine inspectors for the Department of Labor, and Secret Service agents will continue to work, many without pay. The members of Congress creating the mess are considered essential, and will receive their paychecks.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co's possible $11 billion settlement of government mortgage probes has been complicated by a dispute with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp over responsibility for losses at the former Washington Mutual Inc, said people familiar with the matter.

The dispute, between the largest U.S. bank and the FDIC, could leave the federal agency on the hook for billions the bank is expected to pay as part of the settlement and substantially reduce the amount of the penalty JPMorgan actually pays to the government, some analysts said.

In the British imagination, Americans often feature as prudes—“American women would view the whole notion of ‘wine o’clock’ with horror,” the former M.P. Louise Mensch, who moved to New York last year, recently wrote in the London Times. When it comes to online pornography, however, it turns out that the British may be more puritanical. This summer, Prime Minister David Cameron announced a plan to fit every new broadband account in the U.K. with a “family-friendly” filter, so that, beginning later this year, Brits who want access to the seamier corners of the Internet will have to “opt in” in order to view them. “Tear off your genitals, smash up your wanking headphones, because porn as we know it is over,” Clive Martin wrote on Vice’s British Web site, calling the measure “a kind of wanker’s census.” In Cameron’s country upon a hill, Martin predicted, homemade sex tapes would be to porn as moonshine was to gin.

However the budget showdown ends—and, as I write this at lunchtime on Monday, a temporary government shutdown is looking like the most likely outcome—its defining moment came on Saturday, when House Republicans decided to demand a one-year delay in Obamacare as the price of funding the government beyond September 30th. At a closed-door meeting of the Republican caucus, cheers erupted when Speaker Boehner announced the plan. The whole room shouted, “Let’s vote!,” according to John Culberson, a Texan hard-liner. “And I said,” he recalled, “you know, like 9/11: ‘Let’s roll.’ ”

By now, you know that not all meat is created equal.

That familiar fable about Old MacDonald and his happy barnyard menagerie is a far cry from the cruel reality of factory farms, where cows, pigs and chickens are crammed together in giant warehouses, fattened on grain and pumped full of antibiotics, then rolled out to the slaughterhouse to become the next Big Mac or box of McNuggets.

In regulatory lingo, these meat factories are called “concentrated animal feeding operations,” or CAFOs. (Pronounced "cay-fo.")

OTTAWA — The Conservative government's new pledge to fight for consumer issues is not sitting well with the NDP.

New Democrats say the Tories' track record on consumer protection is dismal and they don't intend to let the government get away with rhetoric when their actions in Parliament prove otherwise.

Nearly one year ago, Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast. Within days, utility workers, police officers and volunteers swarmed the flooded and sand-strewn streets of the Rockaway Peninsula in southeastern Queens. At the base of one of the two clogged bridges leading to the Rockaways, a group of young people in bright-blue jackets emblazoned FEMA Corps unloaded a truck full of supplies, gave directions to victims looking for shelter and provided logistical support to the fledgling efforts of the federal relief apparatus. Those in FEMA Corps were among the first “boots on the ground” in what has been a $60 billion federal investment in Sandy recovery. Part of the National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC), which in turn is part of AmeriCorps, the FEMA Corps members were representatives of a quiet move by the government to put young, quickly trained volunteers at the forefront of disaster relief.

The reproductive rights movement is often stuck playing defense: doing its best to fight back against the proliferation of anti-choice restrictions, but failing to push policies that would expand access to abortion. Thirty-seven years after the Hyde Amendment stripped poor women of Medicaid coverage for abortion—and turned abortion into a legal right that was out of reach for many—the movement is back on offense.

Barring an unexpected last-minute jolt of sanity, at midnight tonight the federal government will shut down all but its most essential services. Despite the Senate passing a clean bill last week to continue funding the government, the Republican-led House early Sunday morning chose to forsake their basic responsibility to keep our country functioning, and instead used the impending shutdown as a last-ditch opportunity to delay the Affordable Care Act—the president’s signature bill that would insure millions of Americans unable to afford healthcare on the open market.

In her new book, Wonder Women: Sex, Power, and the Quest for Perfection, Debora Spar persuasively argues that despite all the gains women have made in the past 30 years, they simply can’t “have it all.” Drawing on extensive research, knowledge she’s gleaned as president of Barnard college -- where she says she observes young women striving for perfection every day -- as well as her own experience as a mother of three children and a former professor at Harvard Business School, Spar, 50, calls on all women to “kill the myths” that make them feel inadequate.

Staking Claim is a multi-part series exploring the proposed Ring of Fire mining development in Ontario and how the First Nations communities are preparing for economic activity and the environmental and societal consequences of Canada's next resource rush.

WEBEQUIE FIRST NATION, ONT. — A bald eagle soars from the east between the evergreen branches of an uninhabited island in Ontario’s Far North and swoops in front of a fisherman’s small aluminum boat.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark says her province is moving closer to an agreement with Alberta that would lay a path for oil sands bitumen to reach B.C. ports.

A series of high-level meetings are under way to discuss how the two provinces can open up the path to B.C.’s coasts, and then Asian markets. An agreement is not imminent, but officials for both the provinces are working on a framework to address B.C.’s five conditions.

There seems to be virtually no limit to Stephen Harper's efforts to diminish government and democracy in this country. The prime minister's obvious contempt for democracy keeps getting underlined by the grotesque corruption of the people he appoints and surrounds himself with. If he had a modicum of genuine respect for democracy he would be more careful about who he appoints to the Senate and who he allows to run for the Conservatives. More importantly, he would create a political culture that unequivocally rejects the kind of unethical behaviour that has now become the trademark of his administration. These miscreants know exactly what Harper expects of them -- power at any cost and a wink and a nod at personal graft, until you get caught, of course.

There seems virtually no limit to Stephen Harper's efforts to diminish government and democracy in this country. The prime minister's obvious contempt for democracy keeps getting underlined by the grotesque corruption of the people he appoints and surrounds himself with. If he had a modicum of genuine respect for democracy he would be more careful about who he appoints to the Senate and who he allows to run for the Conservatives. More importantly, he would create a political culture that unequivocally rejects the kind of unethical behaviour that has now become the trademark of his administration. These miscreants know exactly what Harper expects of them -- power at any cost and a wink and a nod at personal graft, until you get caught, of course.

We broadcast from New Orleans, Louisiana, the heart of the world’s prison capital, where more people are behind bars any other state per capita — an incarceration rate 13 times that of China. Louisiana also ranks among the highest in the country in terms of the number of people per capita who are exonerated after serving years in prison for crimes they did not commit. We are joined by Henry James, the longest-serving prisoner to be exonerated in Louisiana. James spent 30 years in the notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola prison, on a life sentence without parole for rape. At trial, the prosecution never told the jury that serology testing from the rape kit excluded James as the perpetrator. In 2011, DNA evidence found by accident proved James’ innocence, winning him his release. We also speak with Emily Maw, director of Innocence Project New Orleans, which helped win his exoneration. "Henry James’ case is unfortunately atypical. Everybody in Louisiana who is convicted of murder or rape gets sentenced to life without parole. There is no other sentence for those two crimes. What is atypical about Henry’s case is that they found the evidence," Maw says. "In Louisiana, as in many places, evidence storage and preservation practices are atrocious. People lose evidence all the time in cases where DNA testing could prove their innocence."

Video
Source: democracynow.org
Author: --

Natural Resources audit of 2012 budget cuts overlooks impact on services

Natural Resources Canada has released an audit of how it implemented the deep budget cuts in the 2012 federal budget, but the review fails to account for the impact of the cuts on the department’s ability to deliver services.

The internal audit offers new insight into how Natural Resources Canada managed to cut 10 per cent, or $107-million, from its operating budget over three years. According to the review by NRCan chief audit executive Christian Asselin, 23 per cent of the cuts were through reductions in personnel and employee benefits, 25 per cent of the cuts were to departmental operations and maintenance, and 52 per cent of the cuts were to grant and contribution programs.

A former cop with an exemplary record is going public about what he calls corruption in Edmonton police ranks, after he tried internally to expose what he believes is organized brutality, but got no results.

"I stood up for what's right, and I just got run out of the police service,” said Derek Huff, 37. “I still can’t even really believe it.”

Huff is a 10-year-veteran who resigned in February, three years after he said he and his partner watched — stunned — as three plainclothes officers viciously beat a handcuffed man while he was down.

Job service providers say they are worried about the federal government's plan to fund a new Canada Job Grant with money previously targeted to some of the country's hardest to employ people.

The federal government is making the change on April 1, 2014 without consulting provincial or territorial governments, people in the jobs and skills training sector or the public, said Chris Atchison, chair of the Canadian Coalition of Community Based Employment Training.

Ontario youth looking for a job may have better luck in parts of the U.S. Rust Belt or the Eurozone, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Five years after the end of the Great Recession, the province's youth have been largely shut out of the recovery, the report found, "and the province’s current youth employment strategy isn’t fast enough nor robust enough to turn things around."

Harper's Megaphone Policy Has Made Canada a Right-Wing Gas Bag

Canada has become the classic practitioner of megaphone policy.

Imagine a different approach. Imagine if we'd kept our small embassy in Tehran open, with a seasoned diplomat and a couple of bright political and legal officers. Imagine if they'd kept open a window on potential change, as Robert Ford did for years in Moscow at the height of the Cold War.

Imagine we'd brought together our most experienced ambassadors to discuss the Arab Spring as we should be doing...and then been able to intervene more usefully than we have.

POTISKUM, Nigeria -- Suspected Islamic extremists attacked an agricultural college in the dead of night, gunning down dozens of students as they slept in dormitories and torching classrooms, the school's provost said – the latest violence in northeastern Nigeria's ongoing Islamic uprising.

The attack, blamed on the Boko Haram extremist group, came despite a 4 1/2-month-old state of emergency covering three states and one-sixth of the country. It and other recent violence have led many to doubt assurances from the government and the military that they are winning Nigeria's war on the extremists.

House Republicans Target Contraception In Last-Minute Spending Bill

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans included a so-called "conscience clause" in the government funding bill in a plan they approved early Sunday.

The House voted 231-192 on a bill that would delay much of the 2010 health care overhaul for a year. It would also repeal a tax on medical devices that helps finance the health care law.

The measure would allow employers and insurers to opt out of providing health care services that they find morally or religiously objectionable. The addition reignites the debate over a portion of the health care reform law that requires most insurers to cover women's preventative health care, including contraception. CNN reports that the provision would allow them to opt out of coverage for the next year.

Ottawa’s $660-million gift to Toronto for a subway extension will come from a program that does not yet exist, leaving Canada’s other cities confused as to how they can get in on the action.

Mayors and municipal officials scrambled this week to understand the broader implications of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s surprise announcement on Monday that Ottawa would help finance a subway extension in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough.

People write about China's growth so much it's daunting to wring out something new. But—wow—when you see it for the first time in a few years, it still delivers one hell of a punch.

I lived in China for a year before the Beijing's 2008 Olympics (a kind of development event horizon in China’s history, towards which the whole country hurtled), and I've been back regularly enough to marvel at changes first hand.

Eva Perdue, her legs wrapped in a black- and-white-checked blanket, a bright red kerchief tied in her hair, sits on a couch in her small house near downtown Atlanta that Habitat for Humanity built. She once worked as a housekeeper at a Georgia state mental facility but quit nine years ago to care for a sick husband. Now 64 and widowed, Perdue herself is sick. “Curses of the liver and high blood pressure,” she says. She has little money to buy any food, let alone healthy food: $98 is all she has after bills are paid from her $848 monthly Social Security check plus $68 worth of food stamps.

The morning I visited Perdue, she had eaten for breakfast the breading from two corn dogs, washed down with a cup of tea. The corn dogs she gave to her 18-year-old grandson, who lives with her. Too much salt, she said. “I can eat cereal. But I have no milk.” A gallon would cost $3 or $4, which Perdue did not have. Lunch might be a small salad with some rust-tinged cabbage and carrots from a convenience store up the street. She wasn’t sure about supper or what she’d eat the next day—if she ate at all.

TUNIS, Tunisia — Tunisia's governing Islamist party has agreed to resign in favor of a caretaker government in an attempt to resolve a political crisis that has paralyzed the country, officials said Saturday.

The assassination of a left-wing politician at the end of July – the second in five months – was the turning point for the country's disgruntled opposition, which pulled its deputies out of parliament and staged a string of protests across the country.

MIAMI — Emboldened by the Supreme Court decision that struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act, a growing number of Republican-led states are moving aggressively to tighten voting rules. Lawsuits by the Obama administration and voting rights activists say those efforts disproportionately affect minorities.

At least five Southern states, no longer required to ask Washington's permission before changing election procedures, are adopting strict voter identification laws or toughening existing requirements.

Robert Reich: Minimum Wage Protests Show 'We Are At A Tipping Point'

Workers are mad and they're not going to take it any more, according to Robert Reich.

The former Labor Secretary told HuffPostLive Wednesday that the recent explosion in wage protests shows "we are at a tipping point."

"People are beginning to say to themselves, we can't go on this way," Reich, who was on HuffPostLive to promote his new movie Inequality for All, said. "If we are minimum wage workers, there's no way we can support a family.'"

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Author: -

N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens

WASHINGTON — Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans’ social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials.

The spy agency began allowing the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs in November 2010 to examine Americans’ networks of associations for foreign intelligence purposes after N.S.A. officials lifted restrictions on the practice, according to documents provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor.

The ACLU wrote a letter on Wednesday to decry the shocking treatment of Jagjeet Singh, a practicing Sikh, at the hands of the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the Pike County Justice Court.

Singh was pulled over in January for a flat tire, and was harassed by the state's Department of Transportation officers who wrongly assumed that his kirpan, a small spiritual sword that is a religious article for Sikhs, was illegal. They taunted him as a "terrorist" and arrested him for refusing to obey "an officer's lawful command," reports the ACLU.

WASHINGTON -- If Congress can't pass legislation to keep the government funded by Monday at midnight, the Smithsonian museums will close, the Centers for Disease Control will halt its influenza monitoring program and up to 800,000 federal workers (many of whom have already faced unpaid leave due to sequestration) will be furloughed.

But shutting down the federal government won't stop two of the Republican Party's most despised bogeymen: Obamacare and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

There have been bloodier massacres in the recent past, and bigger urban conflagrations, but perhaps no event in living memory has more dreadfully exposed the oldest, deepest rift in America than did the May 1985 police assault on the self-described revolutionary group known as MOVE. By bombing the row house that MOVE occupied and allowing the resulting blaze to burn out of control, Philadelphia’s predominantly white civic authorities killed eleven people, five of them children, and reduced much of a black working-class neighborhood to ruins. The outcome was a catastrophe. The tragedy, though, was the stand-off, which had been building for a decade—or so Jason Osder suggests in his quietly terrifying documentary Let the Fire Burn.

VICTORIA - The RCMP and a special prosecutor have been investigating whether any laws were broken as part of the B.C. Liberal government's strategy to woo ethnic voters.

NDP Leader Adrian Dix said Thursday the RCMP probe was prompted by a confidential letter from him.

"I thought these issues were sufficiently serious as to warrant an investigation," Dix said in a news release.

Problems at the Canada Revenue Agency run much deeper than a $381,000 rebate cheque mistakenly issued to a jailed mob boss, according to two former auditors who say they witnessed an attempt to stall a corruption probe and colleagues getting cozy with organized crime.

The former CRA employees spoke on camera to Radio-Canada's investigative program Enquête as part of a three-year investigation by its journalists into graft allegations at the tax agency's Montreal office.

The first time she saw her mother passed out on the living room floor, Amanda thought she was dead. There were muddy tracks on the carpet and the room looked like it had been ransacked. Mary wouldn't wake up. When she finally came to, she insisted nothing was wrong. But as the weeks passed, her 15-year-old daughter's sense of foreboding grew. Amanda's parents stopped sleeping and eating. Her once heavy mother turned gaunt and her father, Barry, stopped going to work. She was embarrassed to go into town with him; he was covered in open sores. A musty stink gripped their increasingly chaotic trailer. The driveway filled up with cars as strangers came to the house and partied all night.

Elizabeth Warren: 'We Face A Clear Danger' In Campaign Finance Supreme Court Case

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned Thursday that a coming Supreme Court case that could ultimately eliminate certain campaign contribution limits is a "clear danger" that threatens to expand the influence of large and wealthy corporations on elections.

The case -- McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, set to be argued on Oct. 8 -- challenges the aggregate limit on campaign contributions that an individual donor can make in a single election. Currently, a donor may only give $123,300 in total, made up of sub-limits of $48,600 to candidates and $74,600 to party committees and PACs.

The plaintiff, Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon, hopes that the court will eliminate these limits, arguing earlier this year that the issue is "a very important First Amendment case about freedom of speech."

The armed forces should seek to make British involvement in future wars more palatable to the public by reducing the public profile of repatriation ceremonies for casualties, according to a Ministry of Defence unit that formulates strategy.

Other suggestions made by the MoD thinktank in a discussion paper examining how to assuage "casualty averse" public opinion include the greater use of mercenaries and unmanned vehicles, as well as the SAS and other special forces, because it says losses sustained by the elite soldiers do not have the same impact on the public and press.

Stephen Harper's very bad day: Charges against Dean Del Mastro and a new PBO report

Poor Stephen Harper.

It's just days since he pulled Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro out of the dog house and appointed him Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Northern Economic Development and the development agencies for Southern and Northern Ontario.

Now the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Mr. Yves Côté, has laid four charges under the Canada Elections Act against Del Mastro.

Parliamentary secretaries are supposed to be understudies to cabinet ministers.

Stop the treadmill: Ottawa is thinking of spending your money, again. This week the Parliamentary Budget Office reported on the cost of an adult fitness tax credit: $286-million over five years. In the 2011 federal election campaign, the Conservatives promised to bring in the credit once the budget was balanced. They also pledged to double the existing children’s fitness tax break to $1,000, and allow income splitting for families on earnings of up to $50,000.

There are three reasons political parties conjure up targeted tax breaks. The first is to address a pressing social concern. The second is to implement changes consistent with their philosophy. The third is to buy votes. And in our democratic system, far too often, parties choose Door Number Three.